Oops… an oversight by ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina has cost her dearly

Those who have plans to start a campaign, be it in business or politics, should never forget to register the necessary domain names. Such an oversight could indeed damage the whole campaign – a lesson that ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has learnt the hard way.

The day after Fiorina announced her candidacy for president of the United States, the international press started putting her on the spot, because it appeared that the candidate forgot to register the relevant domain names for her campaign. The domain name CarlyFiorina.org got into the hands of someone who disagreed with Fiorina’s political views back when she was CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

The site displays the following: “Carly Fiorina failed to register this domain. So I’m using it to tell you how many people she laid off at Hewlett-Packard”. This statement is followed by 30,000 unhappy emoticons, which are supposed to embody the 30,000 employees who lost their jobs. Below, visitors are met with a quote that discredits Fiorina even more; in 2010, when she was asked what she would do if she were to do it again, she said: “I would have done it faster”.

It should be said that the instigator of the “anti-Fiorina” website is not devoid of political motives – at least, that is what Fiorina affirms. According to her, the site was created by an employee of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is a key sponsor of the American Democratic Party, while Fiorina is, of course, a Republican.

Political motives or not, this incident shows once again how important it is to register the necessary domain names when you plan to start a campaign. With all her experience in the tech world, it is however surprising that Fiorina forgot about such an important thing. Carlyfiorina.com redirects to her official campaign site, but she left the .org version to her political opponents. As for the .net version, which is also a rather renowned domain extension, it only redirects to an “under construction” page.